The invention relates to the filed of ink printers, and more particularly to a cartridge that is compatible with a particular type of printhead.
It is well known and indeed the universal practice to have ink printers such as are commonly used with personal computers (PC) equipped with replaceable cartridges that store the ink that is used with printers. The cartridges are replaceable so that when the ink supply in a particular cartridge is exhausted, the user need simply the replace the spent cartridge with a new cartridge having ink to continue operation of the printer. It is also well known to have 2 separate cartridges: one storing black ink and the other storing the three primary colors. Because users typically use much more black ink than color ink (or in any event, use black ink at a different rate than color ink), it is advantageous to have the black ink cartridge separately replaceable to avoid wasting ink when a cartridge is replaced.
The present invention relates solely to the mechanical fit of an ink cartridge with a particular type of printhead as described below, and the remaining portions of the ink cartridge can be constructed in way that is desired by a manufacturer, as is well known in the art.
The present invention relates to a printer cartridge that is compatible with a particular printhead, such as a printhead as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,619,239 of Kotaki et al., issued Apr. 8, 1997, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference. Nothing herein should be construed as an admission of the validity or scope of the ""239 patent. Rather, the present invention presents an alternative design.
The ""239 patent discloses a camming shoe (denoted as component 105a) having a horizontal pressing means 105b. The pressing means (denoted as component 105b) generates a downward force to press down onto the ink container. While the system disclosed in said patent may (or may not) have a certain level of functionality or advantages in comparison with other systems, it has been discovered that it is unnecessary for the ink cartridge to engage the camming shoe in order to effectively seat within the printhead. The present invention relates to that discovery.
The terminology employed herein is not necessarily the same as in the ""329 patent. Herein, the xe2x80x9ccartridgexe2x80x9d is the replaceable, removable ink storing member that fits within the xe2x80x9cprintheadxe2x80x9dxe2x80x94the term cartridge herein generally refers to term xe2x80x9cink tankxe2x80x9d in the ""329 patent.